A multi-agency task force put together by Brent Council to clamp down on crime in shisha cafes has been shortlisted for an environmental excellence award.

Officers from the council’s trading standards, food, safety, public health and community safety teams, as well as police officers, visited shisha cafes in the borough over a six-month period.

The project saw incidents of violent crime at the cafes reduce from six to zero in an equivalent period.

The idea was to tackle issues including antisocial behaviour, littering, smell and noise nuisance, and the harmful effects of tobacco.

Twenty-two businesses were prosecuted, 35 fixed penalty notices were issued, and all equipment from nine premises was removed.

Cllr Tom Miller said: “There’s been a big growth in shisha cafes in Brent over the last few years, and we have to make sure they trade legally and ethically, and don’t blight the area with anti-social behaviour, litter or other nuisances.”

An 80-year-old grandmother was called a “f***ing bitch” in a “foul outburst” by her alleged murderer months before she was strangled with a lawnmower cord in a Colindale allotment shed, the Old Bailey heard today.